Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Dance to Live
By Nirmala Nataraj
The ancient Greeks knew a thing or two about catharsis: Spectators at a typical Sophocles performance experienced a vicarious horror when heroes became too hubristic, lost an eye, or got eviscerated in the bathtub. But beyond the gory narratives, Greek tragedies were spiritually revitalizing, and every hard-to-watch scene and major breakdown ultimately led to huge sighs of relief and even, gosh darn it, hope for the future. The performers in L1FE: mine. yours. ours. take their audiences full circle too, eschewing apathetic gods and existential fury for a gorgeous piece of feel-good dance theatre. Modern dance bellwether Sarah Bush joins forces with hip hop–styled Freeplay Dance Crew, fusing forms as varied as jazz and Latin and interspersing them with metaphorical videos. L1FE examines the body as a vehicle for personal and global compassion and understanding, regardless of how it’s been atomized by catastrophes both large and small. The dancers take us through Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief and well into some nimbly choreographed resolution. The fact that the groups plumb an emotional realm far beyond language makes it an experience that’s perhaps even more restorative than your average Greek tragedy.
Date/Time: Daily from Fri., March 16 until Sun., March 18, 8:00pm
Price: $15-$25
Event Location:
Dance Mission Theater
3316 24th St. (at Mission)
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-826-4401
Photo Credit: Ben Peoples Photography http://www.benpeoples.com
http://www.sfweekly.com/search/events.php?eventSearch=1&date=2007-03-16&event_occurance=both
Sarah Bush Dance Project 